Woven Nashville: An Evening of Music, Art, and Conversation is a creative experience hosted by Sunday Night Soul’s Jason Eskridge and East Side Storytellin’s Chuck Beard at the historic Frist Art Museum. This monthly event brings together unique pairings of extraordinary Nashville creatives working in all kinds of media. Each specially curated show will feature musicians alongside painters, writers, comics, dancers, spoken-word artists, and more. The goal is to provide a “mixtape” atmosphere, blending individual and collaborative performances and conversations designed to lift up the talented people who make Nashville so wonderful. Free to attend, Woven Nashville is an instant-classic treasure you will want to carry home with you.
Featured artists this month
Khalil Ekulona
Since 2021, Khalil Ekulona has hosted This Is Nashville, the flagship daily show on WPLN 90.3 FM—a show that aims to exhibit the connections of human beings regardless of identity or political affiliation. Originally from the suburbs of Baltimore, Ekulona got his broadcasting start as the co-host of Good Day New Mexico in Albuquerque. From there, he became a correspondent with New Mexico Public Television and a sports anchor at UPublic Network.
In 2019, he began working with NPR affiliate KUNM. There, he co-produced and hosted Your New Mexico Government and the award-winning podcast No More Normal, both of which covered the government, world, and local events during the pandemic, before moving to Nashville in 2021. Ekulona takes life one day at a time and is open to new experiences because that is how he got to where he is today. He is a dedicated cat dad and loves to seek out laughter—the perfect way to heal any wound.
Shannon LaBrie
The secret to Shannon LaBrie’s artistry is the seemingly effortless blending of impassioned vocals with honest and insightful lyrics. “Raining Hallelujah” is a timely song of resilience. Jonathan Frahm with For Folk Sake (UK) calls the song “a reminder that kindness and healing is just around the bend”. Written alongside Grammy award winning songwriter Tia Sillers (“I Hope You Dance, Blue on Black, There’s Your Trouble), “Raining Hallelujah” offers an optimistic long view while searching for a light at the end of the tunnel. When LaBrie sings, “Above every storm, a cloudless sky is waiting for you and me,” a choir of soulful singers echo her ambitious call.
Growing up on a farm in Nebraska, LaBrie attributes her passion for music to her Dad, who died when she was just thirteen. “He taught me my first guitar chords and when he passed away, songwriting became my way of grieving and dealing with the pain.” On her latest album, Building, LaBrie’s undeniable voice and musicianship have been described as “nothing short of breathtaking” by American Songwriter and NPR added her heroic anthem “Firewalker” to their Top 20 of 2020.
